Sympathy for the Devil

[Yuki]

Aiden had given them the means to shop in the first place, that much was true. Even so, if he was going to provide them with such an opportunity, he should've set apart a sufficient amount of time. Even if he transparently had little knowledge of a girl's mind, he should at least know that forty-five minutes can hardly even be considered a minimum time limit for shopping. She turned away from him in her seat and crossed her arms more firmly. "By males such as yourself, I am referring to your gender, though I thought that was clearly apparent." Then, she turned back to face him and added in a stoic manner, "However, if you would like to read more into my obvious statement, feel free to do so."

He seemed extremely irritated, especially since he had realized that Teagan had made him carry an excess load of her belongings. Her comment might've contributed to his mood. Looking down at the ground, she was a bit startled by the amount of bags Teagan had convinced Aiden to hold. Clearly, the girl loved shopping for her to purchase so much merchandise. Although, Yuki thought to herself, it is probably all worthless and insignificant junk...

Her musing was cut short by the interruption of the intercom.

"Aiden Sanders, please come to the security office, Aiden Sanders, please come to the security office, your daughter is waiting for you."

...She would.

Yuki sighed in frustration. The girl was causing unnecessary trouble. Just as she was about to go buy herself something for lunch, too. Thanks to Teagan, this notion would now have to be post-poned. Aiden was notably infuriated by the situation, as he fumed about Teagan's actions in quite the emphatic manner, making colorful use of the English language's profane vocabulary. His reaction was completely understandable in Teagan's case. Reluctantly, Yuki stood from her seat and followed. "Mendokusai," she said under her breath.

[Aiden]

In the back of his mind, he felt slightly bad for both Yuki and Teagan. In the past month, he'd been more irritated and angry than he'd been in a long time, and the cause was just one person. Teagan had a way of getting him riled up, like then, for she'd gone and ruined a perfectly good shopping trip, and CLEARLY decided to ignore his rule when he told them not to draw attention to themselves. Aside from that, even though he was friendly with some of the cops in town, there were others that were out to get him, and if they exposed his credit card scams or anything like that, he'd be royally screwed. He didn't want to go deal with useless rent-a-cop's for an hour, and his present dilemma was trying to figure out how he would explain that Teagan was his daughter. Where did she get that idea, or was that her idea of making the situation even funnier for her? He scowled as they exited the food court.

After searching the bottom floor, he finally found the hallway which led to the office for the security task force. He pushed the door open, and upon explaining why he was there, he instantly received an obvious look of confusion, but was nonetheless taken back to the main room. He walked through the door, Yuki in tow, to find Teagan looking terribly uncomfortable on a chair in between several mall cops, explaining something about her mother being crazy and that they should be open minded, and upon her glance at Aiden, she exclaimed it wasn't her fault. He cut her off, his brows furrowed. "Save it," he growled, looking at the equally confused officers, the main, largest one inquiring how he could be her father. "Her mother loves me, and I love her. I'm technically her step-father, if you can follow," he growled, and then he tilted his head back, and rubbed the back of it. "You know us young guys nowadays, we love those cougars. Married me right out of high school, and promised me a fortune!" he said with a slight, embarrassed laugh. "Anyway, what did she do?"

[Teagan]

The glare that bore into her skull deriving from the officer to her left caused Teagan to shift uncomfortably in the wooden chair. If his hazel eyes stared any harder, they were going to pop out of his head. Teagan's hands were folded softly in her lap and her head bowed, trying to paint the picture of an innocent child. Although she wasn't really a child; she was 18, for crying aloud. No one in blue believed her though. And Teagan had even pulled out her driver's license to show them!

Just her luck, they had figured out it was fake. She was dead meat.

Teagan internally cursed at Deacon. No one had ever caught her schemes before he had stumbled onto hers back in Keystone. Now her record was about to continue the flawed path away from the perfection she strove to achieve everyday. If he had only let Aiden drink the concoction, she would still be sharp. And capable.

And not completely embarrassed as two officers tried to pull information out of her that she could not -would not- give. Her parents weren't with her, no. She didn't know the ID was fake. Yes, her name was -oh Lord- Martha. But did the nice cops believe any of it? Yeah right. A short girl like her? Teagan hated it when people assumed she was younger than she looked solely because of her height. They should know Teagan was a step above because they had caught her doing something not every minor makes a hobby of. Could they get a clue?

Her face burned with when she heard the announcement go over the speakers. Oh, he would kill her when they got out of this.

"...so when he gets here, he might not look like what you expect, alright?" Teagan warned the female cop to her left. "Seriously. My mom is insane. She really likes younger guys. Really. I don't know why she married him, but I didn't approve. So, keep an open mind, yeah?"

At that moment, Aiden bolted through the security door and his eyes narrowed as they fell on Teagan. Crud. She could feel the anger radiating from behind the line of security in front of her. "It wasn't my fault! I swear!"

Teagan fell silent at his snappy reply and sunk deeper into her seat as the conversation continued. Oh, how she would regret every moment of this later.

"This one," a large, heavy hand placed itself on her shoulder. Like she would bolt. Where could she run? "...was caught planting numerous electronic monitoring devices in the security room in the back." The officer pointed to a pile of wires and bugs on a nearby desk.

"They aren't bugs!" Teagan protested, trying to add credit to her made-up story. "I was just looking for a place to charge the batteries on my headphones! Usually someone has something useful back here!" Crud. She had to get out of this, and fast. Teagan prayed that Aiden would catch on. She would explain everything after this...

...everything.

[Aiden]

A couple of the officers exchanged skeptical looks at Aiden's explanation, but he kept going, ignoring the looks, the whispers, and the quizzical brow raise from Mr. Macho in front of him. There were...one, two, three, four, five officers in there, none of them had a weapon of any sort, the badges were just for display. Rent-a-cops were useless in the eyes of Aiden, they were mediocre, barely qualified for the job. All they did was walk around the mall giving warnings to people that would carry on doing whatever they were doing as soon as the guard was out of sight. He could probably take out three, maybe a fourth by himself, but he now had Yuki with him, and if it came to a fight to bust them out, then so be it. At least they could deal with all the guards quickly.

Glancing over at the mess of wires that Mr. Macho pointed to, he could also see the ID he'd bestowed her in the car. That ID was passable in all states, so why did they have it confiscated? Looking at Baldy, Aiden pointed lazily to the ID. "And why is that taken away?" he asked nonchalantly, listening to Teagan's words and trying to roll with them. She was making this difficult, had been from the start. Headphones, what could he say about headphones? After a few seconds, something clicked in his head, and he only hoped that Yuki wouldn't kill him later. He sighed for show, and then looked at Mr. Macho, and another man that stepped close to him, whom Aiden deemed Short Round--seriously, the guy had to be a foot shorter than Aiden.

"Look, this girl behind me, this is Martha's penpal, from Japan. Layla here brought Martha a new type of media player only available in Japan. I'd ask her to explain it herself, but she doesn't speak much English. Anyway, it has a damn complicated way of charging, even I get sick of it. You have to have ample amounts of power, even a regular house socket doesn't cut it sometimes. Though, why she would try charging it here, I'm not sure. I suppose it was for security reason, so it doesn't get stolen. I mean," he said, pausing, "we wouldn't want you to have to get off your asses and actually do some work for once if it was stolen," he hissed, clearly showing his distaste for them. "Just let her go, give her her possessions back, because you have no right to keep them, and I'll reprimand her as needed. Her mother already has her grounded for not completing her chores," he said, a small smirk on his face. Mr. Macho didn't look too pleased, neither did Baldy or Short Round, who began advancing towards him. They stopped when there was a crackle on their radios.

[Yuki]

As they arrived on the scene, Teagan was constrained by several mall security personnel. The guards accused her of tampering with the equipment in the security room. She claimed to have been charging her headphones. Kudaranai. Yuki knew better. Teagan in a security room, charging headphones? The idea was laughable. Almost as funny as Aiden's attempt to defend himself against the claim of being Teagan's father. That must've been terribly embarassing for him, and the child had obviously sensed that.

Just as Yuki had been wondering where she fit into all this, Aiden identified her as "Layla," the one who had given her the headphones which were now apparently from Japan. She was about to explain how they worked (a blatant lie, obviously), but she had not gotten so far as to opening her mouth when she was cut off by Aiden.

"I'd ask her to explain it herself, but she doesn't speak much English."

Unseen to the security guards, Yuki kicked Aiden's ankle with the tip of her boot. She could speak English quite well, thank you very much. Even if he had only said that for the sake of making the argument quicker, she could've ended it just as fast without his addition to Layla Takashi's skill platter. Or lack thereof, rather.

And then, there was a loud, crackling noise coming from the radios of the guards. It was as if they had been flooded with static. Yuki winced with the sharp noise and covered her ears with her hands. "Even if Teagan doesn't have highly-advanced headphones from Japan, the Americans could most certainly use a boost in their technology," she thought to herself.

[Teagan]

Pen-pal, hm? That had been rather clever, Teagan thought as she remained silent in the chair. The headphones were quite a stretch, but Aiden earned brownie points for being able to think that quickly on his feet. Then again, if Teagan ever mentioned that little compliment to him, it would most likely bloat his ego. And his ego didn't need any more air. She frowned and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Who came up with the bright idea to make chair out of wood? Did people actually enjoy splinters?

Teagan didn't. A curse escaped from her lips as she clenched her fist tightly, trying to ignore the hindrance on her hand. Not the best time to get a splinter. It seemed she would have to wait until they returned to the tavern to take it out. In the meantime, Teagan shifted her attention to the security guards who were advancing on her fellow faction members. Yeah, if they weren't mad before, they were about to be-

A deafening crackle emanated from the radios of every officer, immediately drawing the focal point of the room to whatever situation was about to emerge. The officers traded glances: should they deal with the kid who tried to bug their office and her "step-dad" or investigate the noise on the other end of the line? The man gripping Teagan's shoulder turned back to Aiden and Yuki.

"What's the matter? You all look like you've never heard static before. Wipe those looks off your faces," he growled. "Everything's fine!"

At that point, the power cut in the entire building, screams rose from down the corridor, and all of the officers immediately stood to attention. Teagan sighed with relief. Perfectly timed, in the opinion of the resident trickster. She wished she could take credit for it, but if it was what she thought it was...well, technically it didn't exist...so it couldn't have been.

"Or, maybe it's not," the deep voice behind her angrily amended. "Saonke, call corporate and tell them we're evacuating the mall until we discover what the problem is. Henderson and Miles, see if you can get the generator working. The rest of you escort the shoppers off the premises as fast as you can. Dont' forget safety is key!" The weight of the hand lifted from Teagan's shoulder and the man walked in front of her, eyes bearing down hard. "Looks like you get a warning. If I ever catch you even littering in this mall again, I will ban you for life. Now get out of here and don't let me see your face for a week." With that, the officer followed the rest of his men out of the door.

"No problem, sir. It won't happen again." She rose from her chair as if to leave, but paused. Three....two...one... Safe. Ignoring Aiden and Yuki, Teagan darted back into the security control room behind them and began rapidly typing away on the keyboard.

[Aiden]

Oh yes, Mr. Macho wasn't pleased with Aiden anymore, and he probably didn't buy the whole step-father act any longer. He sized them up, and he knew that three of them would be taken out with a few hits, Yuki and Aiden combined could deal with the rest if Yuki hadn't already jumped into action, and assuredly with the distraction of Aiden and Yuki fighting, Teagan could pull something out of her sleeve. He was confident in their abilities, if it came to a fight, which it looked like. Mr. Macho took a couple steps forward, closing the distance between himself and Aiden before the static erupted over the walkies. Any normal civilian would have played it off as just that, static, but that pitch, length of time, and abruptness was all too familiar to Aiden. His eyes narrowed as Mr. Macho started barking orders to his men to carry on. Was that...no, not here. It couldn't be, what would be the reason? Surely, it was coincidence and it was merely static.

It was only seconds later that the power went out--this was all electrical interference, only the flickering lights step was skipped--and that could only mean one thing: there was something supernatural happening in the mall, and there just so happened to be a hunter and two hunters-in-training in the building. Aiden stood by quietly, glancing at the girls while the men filed out, threatening Teagan. Wow, Aiden thought, looking at the door as Mr. Macho was the last one out, were they really just leaving them in there? Just more ammo to use against the rent-a-cops. Then, glancing at the screen, the flickered back to life--he could only guess that the two men had gotten the generator working. Teagan nearly flew over to the camera center, and began typing away. "Teagan, do you mind telling me what the hell you were and are trying to do?!" Aiden yelled, pulling the gun from the back of his jeans--one always had to be prepared.

Aiden's mind was trying to figure out why there might be some sort of supernatural disturbance at the mall when there were so many people around. He remembered the legend, and the statue, and...he rolled his eyes at himself beneath closed lids, how could he be so stupid?! That pale person in the crowd...gliding...it was a ghost. "Teagan, hurry it up, whatever you're doing, we need to go, NOW!"

[Teagan]

Teagan typed furiously on the keyboard in front of her, calling up the security footage on the monitors. She took out her phone to glance at the time. She had seen the ghoooo-suspicious person last about an hour ago. It didn’t take long to locate the time-code and within moments a crowd of rabid shoppers appeared on the main screen in front of her. Emerald orbs darted back and forth, searching. Where was he?

Behind her Aiden started yelling as he drew his gun. No! It wasn’t something supernatural! IT WAS JUST A STRANGE STALKER! A flicker of white danced across the screen and Teagan paused the footage. And sighed. No way that was normal.

“I saw something strange as I was walking around, alright? I figured it might just be my imagination so I wanted to check it out. The only way to do that was to monitor the security cameras.” Speaking of…she leaned back through the door and retrieved her confiscated items. No need to waste free money. And they could always be put to use elsewhere…elsewhere being any ‘hidden’ or ‘secret location’ or ‘quiet hiding spot to talk in peace’.

“While Dufus back there took a donut break, I snuck in to bug the room.” And everything had been working splendidly until a temp secretary and one of the Jr. Officers snuck into the room to…well, Teagan would rather let herself be caught than to hide and witness the couple’s activities. “Turns out I was right. Take a look.”

[Yuki]

Within moments after the static, cries could be hear from inside the mall. Security rushed out of the room they were in and let Teagan off with a "warning." So much for American security. What in the world was going on? Teagan had immedediately darted towards a room behind them, which appeared to be the location where they monitored the camera. What was that girl up to now? As Aiden went after her, demanding to know what she was up to, Yuki followed with her guard up, ready for anything, supernatural or otherwise. Drawing her gun from inside the vest she was wearing, she stood guard by the door as Teagan explained that she had set the system up so she could monitor the cameras, claiming that she had "seen something strange." Yuki wondered if the girl was starting to become a paranoiac. Which would probably have been an upgrade, since she would the girl would now be alert, at the very least.

Crashes and screams resonated from outside the room. The mall was in total chaos. Yuki stood cautiously, clutching the gun with her left hand, senses tuned to her surroundings, listening for any footsteps, watching for any shadows. She heard the shattering of glass in the distance. "Aiden, Teagan, what is the source of the problem? If we do not make our way outside within the next couple minutes to either escape or stop whoever or whatever it is, civilians may be injured or killed, if that is not already the case," she said, pressing them to make haste.

[Aiden]

From the main mall area, Aiden could hear it too; panic had ensued as soon as the lights went out. He could never understand why people always did that when the power went out, but then again, there was always that fear of the dark, and the fear of the unknown, and the fear that ultimately it was something evil that was innate in every human being, no matter how much they suppressed it. So far, the only signs that he had that this was indeed something supernatural was electrical interference, and a pale figure he saw roaming the mall. But it didn't even look like the same man as the statue, which confused Aiden. How many times had he been in this place and not seen anything like this? Deciding that he could dwell on that later, he glanced up at the screen as Teagan scrolled through the footage. Smart, he had to give her that.

"Dufus being Mr. Macho?" Aiden asked, giving his own given name for the main security guard. He looked at the frozen frame, and then sighed. "I'm such an idiot. I saw that guy, I just thought he was another person in the crowd, you know malls have every possible style under the sun. But..." Now that the image was frozen, he could get a decent look at the guy's face. "That's not the guy from the statue, who is it?" he asked, frowning. He studied the image, looking carefully, when steam vapor escaped his lips. His grip tightened on his gun as he cursed, and he threw himself against the wall nearest the door. "Whatever it is, its supernatural, and its close," he hissed, gun held in the air. Then, in one maneuver, he opened the door and pointed his gun at the empty air. By now, the screams were faint, most everyone having been rushed out. Where was this thing? His breathing was faster...this place was pretty big, it could be anywhere.

He walked slowly along the path, now empty with abandoned kiosks littering the walkway. His gun was at the ready, his eyes were scanning everything. Before he got to far, he leaned back towards the hallway, and began yelling. "Yuki! Take the upper floor, Teagan, watch the monitors for this thing!" He continued his move outwards toward the center of the mall, walking, walking, before ducking as tile shattered behind him on the wall. Had that...had that been a gunshot?! Aiden reacted the only way he knew, by training his gun on the area the shot had come from. Nothing was there, but moments later a cackling erupted in the air, and a man materialized in the air, floating above him, long rifle trained on him. "A hunter? No matter," he said, shouldering the weapon, and firing again.

[Teagan]

"You call him Mr. Macho?" Teagan lifted an eyebrow as she examined the frozen footage. "Stick with insults, they work better."

The figure on the screen did not resemble the statue, as Aiden pointed out, but it had similar characteristics. The time period of the clothing, maybe? The ghastly figure donned a bandit's outfit, complete with bandana to hide his face. Strange. Teagan assumed that only happened on T.V. Beside her, Aiden recalled having seen the figure multiple times while shopping. Crud. That meant Teagan's hunches were correct and her crazy-stalker theory could go out with the trash. The supernatural had arrived.

"It’s a ghost, I think.” Ugh. In a million years she never would’ve guessed those words would pass through her lips. Especially not one which strayed from Yuki’s mouth. The girl clearly looked down at Teagan, and had a tendency to ignore her when Teagan tried to answer a question. Quite often, Yuki missed seeing the white elephant in the room. Before she could say anything else, Aiden’s gun appeared in his hand. Typical. Within moments, the faction leader had darted from the room, his orders echoing down the hallway.

She could handle watching the monitors. A few commands entered into the keyboard and the security cameras displayed live footage from the dozen cameras still active in the mall. Teagan’s eyes squinted as she searched for any oddities. The mall had cleared rather quickly. Only a few technicians remained in the electrical closet on the second floor. She scoffed to herself. They were as much as a problem as they would be a liability, but once they discovered the real cause of the power outage, smoke would rise from their tracks.

A thought occurred to Teagan: Aiden had just run out of the room to fight a ghost with a gun. Mentally she did the math. Physical weight versus transparent creature who could control tangible items. Crud. Teagan flew from the room. That boy would need all the help he could get.

[Yuki]

Surprisingly, it was Teagan who answered her question. A ghost in the mall? Yuki inwardly sighed at the revelation. Of course there would be. No sooner had the girl informed her of the existence of the supernatural creature had Aiden bolted for the door, gun in hand. Yuki nodded to show her understanding of his command and darted cautiously outside, ready to fire. Spotting the escalators, she made a run for them, her senses on alert for any being that crossed her path. The escalators were broken so that they now functioned as stairs, and she swiftly made her way up. Once at the top, she could see down below as Aiden made his way towards the center of the mall. Her thoughts went back to Teagan, Hopefully she had enough sense in her to call them on their cellphones the second she sighted the ghost on the monitor.

She continued her path down the carpeting, glancing quickly inside the now-abandoned shops. Shattered glass was everywhere, and screams could still be heard faintly from the people afar. They were probably outside the mall already. That was good, it was best to minimize the casualties. She imagined it would be much easier to fight on a battleground without having to worry about civilians interfering.

As she proceeded through the mall, stepping over the broken vases on the floor, Yuki wondered what they were going to do to eliminate the ghost. They had to find its body, and then salt and bury the remains. How were they going to do that if they were in a mall? They couldn't drive all the way to a graveyard. As these thoughts passed through her mind, she heard gunfire from downstairs. Rushing to the railing, she saw from below as the ghost appeared, hovering over Aiden. "Aiden, above you!" she shouted from the second story.

[Aiden]

Frankly speaking, the mall looked like hell. Hearing the command to evacuate after the power went out, it looked like people had dropped anything that they didn't intend on buying, or that they were consuming, and ran. Objects in stores were knocked over, Icee's and food wrappers littered the floor. Aiden stepped carefully around these in order to move undetected, though that didn't really help when a ghost could materialize out of nowhere. It was more the nature of humans, really, but that was in the very back of Aiden's mind. Right now, it was his duty as a hunter to protect the mall--the mall, really?--and to assure that this ghost was destroyed so that it couldn't harm anyone else in the future. But how on earth would he find out its identity, much less where the body was...ask? He'd never done that before. There was a first for everything? No, there had to be something more.

Cowering beneath the ghost, Aiden could hear Yuki above him. The rifle was still trained on Aiden, and at the sound of her voice, he couldn't help but to feel like that was the most useless comment she could make at that time. Yeah, it was pretty obvious it was above him when it was shooting at him from the air, he had deduced that much by himself. "I realize that!" he yelled, but then watched at the ghost turned at the sound of her voice, rifle now trained on her. Taking his chance, Aiden aimed his gun, and squeezed the trigger, watching the ghost vanish into thin air. "Yuki, watch yourself, got it?"

As he moved about the mall--for what reason, he didn't know. It wasn't like he could just kill it with his gun--he began recalling the history of the mall. It had been around since his birth, he knew that much. Then there was the statue, the man with the gun, who had...no way. No. That couldn't be. No. Behind him he heard the door to the security room open and close, and saw Teagan appear, as well as the ghost that now aimed its gun at her. This ghost..."You've got to be fucking kidding me," he said to himself, stopping in his place momentarily. That had been a legend! The two guys were actually ghosts?! "You there! I don't take lightly yer kind, replace what you've stolen, vermin," he bellowed at Teagan.

[Teagan]

Teagan burst through the security doors and into the mall. Gunshots were never a good sign. Especially sacred places such as the mall. Her eyes darted around before finding Aiden in one piece. He must have fired the shots then.

Not surprising.

But he had this look on his face that Teagan couldn’t identify. Maybe, for lack of other definitions, an “oh-crap” moment? Did all of his hunts confuse him? It wouldn’t surprise her. Sure, maybe ghosts existed, but Teagan wasn’t quite ready to accept demons and vampires and what not. What the heck was he looking at though?

“You there! I don’t take lightly to yer kind, replace what you’ve stolen, vermin!”

The shout deafened her ear, causing the girl to freeze. Her eyes shifted to the left, where the ghost floated, quite angrily, pointing a gun at her temple. Oh. She suddenly understood Aiden’s expression. “What are you talking about?” she asked, not having the faintest idea. What ghost randomly put a gun to her head and declared her a thief? And then another thought: “Aiden, can this gun actually hit me?”

[Yuki]

As Yuki called out her warning to Aiden, the ghost turned its aim on her. She had somewhat expected his move and was about to raise her gun to fire at it when she heard a loud gunshot from below. The being evaporated, and Yuki didn't have to look to know that It had been Aiden. "Yuki, watch yourself, got it?" She closed her eyes and scoffed. "Your action was completely unnecessary, I had my weapon ready. I can take care of myself, Aiden" she said defensively, and then backed away from the railing, continuing down the carpeting.

She advanced with caution, knowing that she could be attacked at any moment. It was quieter now. Yuki wondered if there were police surrounding the building. They may have thought that a burglar was inside, and that he or she had hostages. Either way, their omission from the area was greatly appreciated. Suddenly, Yuki heard a door open from below and she crouched near the railing, ready to fire. With a finger on the trigger, she was ready to pull, but then...it was just the girl.

...What was she doing out there?! She was supposed to be monitoring the ghosts from the security room! "Kuso," she muttered, and then stood up, ready to berate her. Just then, the creature appeared before Teagan--and its rifle was directed point-blank against her.

“Aiden, can this gun actually hit me?”

Yuki's eyes widened. Was the girl seriously asking something so trivial when she had a ghost before her, at a time when the possibility of death was so eminent?! Pressing on the trigger, she fired at the ghost, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Shoot first, ask questions later."